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Revelation 12:15-17
Satan spews out water as a flood after the eternal church, but the earth helps them
By Brother Mike (4-1-22; 50 minutes)
15
And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood
.
16
And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth
.
17
And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ
.
INTRODUCTION
Shortly after the Church Age began, Satan spewed out water as a flood to carry away the eternal church, the elect. But something happened: the earth helped the church by swallowing up the flood before the elect could be completely washed away. This angered Satan so that he went to war with the remnant of the seed of the church. These were those who kept God's commands and had the witness of Jesus Christ.
Who were the remnant of the seed of the church? Who was the seed of the church? What was the water as a flood that spewed out from Satan's mouth? And how did the earth swallow this flood up to protect the church?
May our Lord and God, Jesus Christ, give to us these things to give us deeper insight into how Satan seeks to harm us and how God has protected us that we might praise Him for all He has done for us, amen.
Revelation 12:15-17:
15
And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood
.
In the first part of this verse, we read, And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman. Now I don't need to expound on the term the serpent because we all know that the serpent refers to Satan himself: the serpent takes us back to the beginning when Satan in the form of a serpent (a snake) deceived Eve into eating the forbidden fruit. We read in Genesis 3,
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Now the serpent was more subtil
[crafty, deceptive, sly, or shrewd]
than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
{Yea ... : Heb. Yea, because, etc. }
2
And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden
:
3
But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die
.
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And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die
:
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For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil
.
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Now, the only point, really, to be made here is that the idea of a serpent has from the beginning carried with it the meaning of great shrewdness, craftiness, and deception. So, when our verse says that the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, we can reasonably assume that this water that comes out of Satan's mouth has something to do with great shrewdness, craftiness, and deception, for that has been the very nature of the serpent (Satan) from the beginning, and we read that this water as a flood comes out of Satan's mouth just as his great shrewdness, craftiness, and deception came out from his mouth in the garden to deceive Eve in the beginning.
So, what does this shrewd, crafty, and deceptive water that comes out of Satan's mouth represent? First, we should recognize that the word flood in our verse is normally translated as river. So, when our verse says, And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, it can be translated, And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a river after the woman. Next, where else in the Bible is water spoken of as a river? Remember, we read in John 7,
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In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink
.
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He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water
.
39
(But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified
.)
Thus, Jesus said that if any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. Then, He reveals what it means to come to Him and drink: it means to believe on Him, for He then says, He that believes on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But then we read, But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Spirit was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified. So, we must conclude that the rivers of living water that would flow from the one who believes on Christ is the Holy Spirit that would flow from the believers after Jesus went back to heaven to be glorified, and the Holy Spirit was given to them, which we know took place on Pentecost of 33 AD when the word of God and the gospel began to go out to the whole world by the Holy Spirit through the believers in Jesus Christ (Acts Chapter 2 and onward). The Holy Spirit, then, that would flow as a river from those who believed on Christ was identified with the word of God or the gospel of salvation, and so the rivers of living water that would flow out of the one who believes belly or bowel that represents that believer's inner most being or soul was the gospel or word of God.
We can further see that rivers symbolize the word of God or gospel when we remember what was taught back in
Revelation 8:10
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still in the local Christian churches and congregations throughout the world until they came to realize that they were commanded by Christ to depart out from all churches during the Great Tribulation (see
Revelation 8:10
But now, let's return to our verse in study. Once again, it reads,
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And the serpent
[Satan]
cast out of his mouth water as a flood
[as a river]
after the woman
[the eternal church],
that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood
.
Now we can begin to understand what it means that Satan cast out of his mouth water as a river after the eternal church: since water as a river would normally refer to the word of God or gospel going into world through the elect by the Holy Spirit, when this water as a river or flood comes out of the mouth of Satan and not the mouth of God, it must be a river or flood of Satan's own words of great shrewdness, craftiness, and deception, or false gospels, to try and deceive the eternal church, the elect, and to turn the rest of the world away from the truth of God and the elect that the true gospel or word of God might be carried away by all Satan's deceptive lies. Of course, Satan would accomplish this through all his false prophets in the same way that he deceived virtually the entire nation of Israel so that they did not even recognize their Messiah, Jesus Christ, when He came to them, even to this day, but instead, they carried Him away and crucified Him.
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Revelation 12:16:
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And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth
.
Since we have already learned that the woman in this verse refers to the eternal church, the elect (see
verse 1
Mt 24:24
For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect
.
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And again, we read,
Mr 13:22
For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall shew signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect
.
Thus, Satan can come so close to the truth and even with signs and wonders (miracles) that even God's elect, the eternal church, could be deceived, if it were possible. So, the elect should never base truth on miracles, signs or wonders, for Satan can do such things, but they should only base truth on the word of God, which are only the scriptures now included in most protestant Bibles, by comparing scripture with scripture and letting the Bible be its own dictionary and commentary (see
First Principles of Bible Study
But now, getting back to our verse, what does it mean that the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth? To answer this question, we need to define the word earth. The Greek word translated as earth can also be translated as land, country, territory, region and more depending on the context, but here we must notice that the earth is spoken of as having a mouth that it opened to swallow up the flood from the dragon, Satan. It makes the earth sound as if it were a person because it is normally a person who can open her mouth and swallow something even as we found that the flood from Satan's mouth came from the mouths of the persons of his false prophets that cast out crafty words of false teachings and false gospels to try and deceive the eternal church, the elect.
Remember what we had learned in
verse 12
But how could the people of the earth have opened their mouths and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth? Obviously, it doesn't mean that the people of the earth literally opened their physical mouths and physically swallowed up Satan's flood because Satan's flood was not physical water that could be physically swallowed, but it was evil spiritual water of all kinds in a flood that came through his false prophet's lies, false teachings, false religions, and false gospels that he cast out in an attempt to deceive or harm the elect during the Church Age. So, in that the people of the earth opened their mouths and swallowed Satan's flood is symbolism to mean that they believed and took in Satan's false teachings into their inner most bowels, which symbolize their inner most hearts or souls so that they were deceived by Satan's flood of lies, false teachings, religions, and false gospels that were cast out after the eternal church, the elect, to try and deceive or harm them.
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So, at the end of the Church Age on May 21, 1988, Satan's river of false teachings and false gospels finally were able to so infiltrate virtually all of the Christian churches in the world,
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Revelation 12:17:
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And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ
.
In this last verse which concludes Revelation Chapter 12, we first read that the dragon [Satan] was wroth with the woman [the eternal church, the elect]. The old English word wroth means angry, so our verse says, And Satan was angry with the eternal church, the elect. But interestingly, this word translated as angry is in the Passive Voice of the Greek. This means that when our verse says that the dragon [Satan] was angry with the woman [the eternal church, the elect], Satan's anger did not originate in himself as he was passive in the matter (see
Passive Voice
Thus, the earth (the people of the earth) helped God's people from being completely overrun by Satan's deceptions, and this is what caused the dragon (Satan) to become angry with the woman (the eternal church, the elect). So, Satan did not become angry because of something in himself, for remember, he was passive in the matter. But Satan became angry because of what happened outside himself, which was that the earth (the people of the earth) helped God's people by taking and believing in Satan's lies, but they then soon died and were buried along with Satan's lies that were in them to be swallowed up by the earth in their graves so that Satan's false teachings and false gospels were not able to completely overcome the eternal church, the elect, as Satan thought it would.
Now, let's look at an example of how just one lie in Satan's flood of lies taken and believed in by the people of the earth could result in severe persecution of the eternal church, the elect. One such lie that Satan spread among the people in the 1st century was that the elect were cannibals because didn't Jesus say,
Joh 6:54
Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day
.
Some of the people of the earth that heard Jesus say this thought that He and His followers were cannibals, and they passed this belief around to others. It resulted in the persecution of the followers of Christ. But eventually, the people who believed this lie died and were buried in the earth. So, it was as though the earth swallowed up Satan's lie so that it didn't end up destroying as many of God's people as it could have.
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But now, if Christ is the seed of the woman (the eternal church, the elect), who is the remnant of her seed? Or we could phrase the question, because we already found that Christ is her seed, who then is the remnant of Christ because, remember, our verse says,
So, in summary, our verse is telling us that after Satan opened his mouth and cast out water as a flood of evil spirits through false prophets with false teachings and false gospels after the eternal church, the elect, during the Church Age, he thought it would completely destroy the eternal church, the elect, but it did not because the earth (the people of the earth) swallowed up (took and believed in) Satan's lies of deception, but they soon perished and so took Satan's lies of deception with them to the grave. So, it was as though the earth helped the eternal church, the elect, by swallowing up Satan's flood of lies and deceptions which were meant to deceive and harm the elect. And this is why Satan was angry with the woman (the eternal church), and he went to make war with the remnant of her seed, namely the elect of Jesus Christ.
Now next, we are told what distinguishes the elect from everyone else who claims a relationship with Christ, we read that they are the ones which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. The elect are first taught the commandments of God by the Holy Spirit as we read,
Joh 16:13
Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come
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Anyone who truly knows Christ, you see, cannot continue to sin. Again, we read,
1Jo 3:9
Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God
. {is born: or, has been born }
This doesn't mean that whosoever is born of God can never sin, but it means such a one cannot ongoingly or continue to sin, for the two verbs translated to make it sound like one who is born of God cannot sin are both in the Indicative Mood and
Present Tense
1Jo 3:9
Whosoever is born of God doth not
[continue in]
sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot
[continue in]
sin, because he is born of God
. {is born: or, has been born }.
On the other hand, someone who is not born of God will continue to sin in one thing or another because they are under bondage to sin and have not the divine power to free themselves from the power of sin and Satan. They will just continue in sin, and they may not even know that they are sinning, for without the Holy Spirit, they are not revealed the truth. For instance, the Holy Spirit has revealed to God's elect in the Holy Scriptures that they are no longer to be a part of any local church or congregation as commanded by their Lord, Jesus Christ (see
Why leave all churches?
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CONCLUSION
During the Church Age, Satan cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the eternal church that he thought would carry them away. This water as a flood we learned to be Satan's lies, false teachings, false religions, and false gospels that he sent out into the world through his evil spirits, false prophets, and unsaved people to hurt, deceive, or destroy the eternal church, the elect. Fortunately, the people of the earth helped the eternal church by swallowing up (taking and believing in) Satan's lies that could hurt, deceive, or destroy the elect if given enough time, but the people of the earth who had been deceived relatively soon perished for one reason or another, taking Satan's lies with them to the grave. It was as if the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up many of Satan's lies to help protect the eternal church.
Then, when Satan saw that the earth helped the eternal church, the elect, he was made angry against them, and he went to battle with the remnant of the eternal church's seed who we discovered was the remnant of Christ, the true elect. Having been born of God, the elect are those who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. They keep the commandments of God not because they can never sin, as they can, but they can never continue to sin or live in sin or have a lifestyle of sinning because the seed of God is in them that has not only set them free from the bondage to sin and Satan that the whole world is in, but to empower them to learn God's ways and to keep them. All praise and glory to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit!
Now, until the next time, may Yahweh bless thee, and keep thee: Yahweh make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: Yahweh lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace (Numbers 6:24-26).